It has been known anecdotally over the past year that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has shifted consumers to digital payments. On Monday, survey results emerged to show just how extensive that shift has been. Roughly one-third of consumers who now use such services as digital wallets, peer-to-peer payments, …
Read More »AmEx Posts a Strong Quarter As Its CEO Signals Caution on BNPL, Crypto, And Acquisitions
American Express Co. reported strong results Friday morning for its third quarter as its top executive said the company hasn’t exhausted its interest in acquisitions, though he added the New York City-based payments company is cool to the prospects for cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange. Chief executive Stephen Squeri …
Read More »Plaid Launches an Initiative With Multiple Fintechs to Enable a Wider Reach for Account-Based Payments
The big open-banking provider Plaid Inc. on Thursday launched a major international campaign to support so-called account-based payments, working in league with almost 50 fintech companies and service providers in North America and Europe. The partners include long-time Plaid allies Dwolla Inc. and Square Inc., as well as new connections …
Read More »B2B and Health-Care Payments Help Drive a Robust Quarter for the ACH
Driven by a surge in business-to-business and health-care claims payments, transactions on the nation’s automated clearing house network swelled 7.7% year-over-year in the third quarter, according to Nacha, the organization that governs the network. Transactions totaled 7.3 billion, up by 520 million, while dollar volume totaled $18.1 trillion, a 13/8% …
Read More »Visa’s Latest Debit Card Perk Is Eligibility for ReadyLink, its Prepaid Reload Network
In a move aimed in part at accommodating digital-only financial institutions, Visa Inc. on Saturday opened its ReadyLink prepaid top-up network for the first time to debit cards. “The expansion makes Visa ReadyLink available to all consumer and business debit cards. The service is optional and issuers need to opt-in,” …
Read More »MagicCube Pockets a $15-Million Round As Device Shortages Spark Interest in Its Technology
The global shortage of semiconductor chips that’s plaguing the makers of point-of-sale terminals and other payment devices has left at least one technology firm sitting pretty, its founder and chief executive says. “It’s wind in our sails,” says Sam Shawki, chief executive of MagicCube Inc. That’s because MagicCube’s technology enables …
Read More »The U.K.’s SumUp Busts Into the U.S. Acquiring Market With Its Deal for Fivestars
In a deal that could have important implications for payments providers like Square Inc. and Stripe Inc., the United Kingdom’s SumUp Inc. early Thursday announced it has acquired Fivestars Loyalty Inc., a San Francisco-based payment facilitator for some 12,000 small businesses. The acquisition, SumUp’s first in the U.S. market, calls …
Read More »FortisPay Is Now Fortis, Signaling Its Stress on Payments Integration for Business Software
As trends such as payment facilitation and integrated payments continue to unfold, at least some payments providers are giving more thought to long-held branding strategies. The latest example is that of FortisPay, which on Tuesday announced it is dropping the “Pay” and is now in the market simply as Fortis. …
Read More »Merchant Acquiring Returns to Fast Growth As Specialized Players Claim an Increasing Share
Despite a temporary setback at the start of the pandemic, merchant acquiring is getting back on a growth track that will see revenue expand at an 11.3% annual clip through 2025, nearly equaling the 11.8% rate chalked up from 2015 to 2019, according to a report and forecast released Monday …
Read More »The First Payments Provider Lines Up at Apple’s App Store Following a Federal Court Ruling
One of the first moves to bring a payment system not controlled by Apple Inc. to Apple’s App Store emerged Thursday and follows a landmark federal-court ruling last month. Paddle Ltd., a London-based payments provider, said it will begin offering the alternative Dec. 7, in line with the terms of …
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